We moved to Modesto about 20 years ago to raise our families and soon after began our nursing careers at Memorial, working on the floor then with critically ill patients in the intensive care unit. For most of that time Memorial has been a great place to work. For a large regional medical center, we still felt like a community hospital with neighbors caring for neighbors. Our hospital changed dramatically when we were bought by the large health care chain, Sutter Health. Over the last few years, we have been asked to do more with less. —By Sharon Waite and Melanie Thompson in the Modesto Bee, 06/20/14 More »

Assembly Bill 503 pending before the Legislature would amend California nonprofit hospitals’ reporting rules, required due to their exemption from corporate income taxes.The California Nurses Association is a proud co-sponsor of that bill and was surprised by Bruce Maiman’s criticism of our role promoting it, (“ State nurses group plays hardball,” Viewpoints, June 17). The accusation that the nurses association distorted the dialogue could not be further from the truth and is more appropriate for Maiman’s former work as a radio talk show host than the more measured, well-informed opinions readers expect to see on the Op-Ed pages of The Sacramento Bee. —By Deborah Burger, RN, Malinda Markowitz, RN, and Zenei Cortez, RN in the Sacramento Bee, 06/20/14 More »

Contra Costa County will direct $6 million to keep cash-strapped Doctors Medical Center afloat for the next few months and give officials time to ponder what to do next. The $6 million property tax transfer approved by the board of supervisors Tuesday represents a third of the San Pablo-based hospital's annual $18 million deficit. The money will allow it to continue to operate while officials scramble to come up with a permanent rescue formula for a downsized facility.
—Tom Lochner, Contra Costa Times, 06/17/14 More »

Every year Los Angeles’ Cedars-Sinai Medical Center releases a glossy brochure called Report to the Community. Among the doctor profiles and research-breakthrough stories are several dry metrics dealing with the number of beds, total patient and outpatient days and, perhaps most impressively, the year’s dollar value for something called “community benefit contributions.” Cedars, which is the state’s third highest-earning nonprofit hospital, claimed $640.3 million as its 2012 community benefit contribution. —By Bill Raden and Gary Cohn for Capital & Main, 06/16/14 More »

An activist nurses union is pushing for legislation in Massachusetts that would create greater transparency regarding hospital prices, executive compensation and investment of assets. The Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA), affiliated with the National Nurses United, supports legislation, HB 3844, that would require disclosure of hospital profit margins, executive pay, and how organizations invest assets overseas. The union is also pushing for a voter ballot initiative as a backup to the legislative route.
—Ron Shinkman, 06/13/14 More »

The “Lift Up El Paso” Alliance is organizing to improve the lives of workers in El Paso and is planning an action for later in July.
—National Nurses Organizing Committee - Texas/National Nurses Union, 06/12/14 More »

A radio advertisement was launched on Wednesday blasting hospital CEOs in Massachusetts for their excessive salaries and compensation packages, while also pointing out the millions of dollars stashed in accounts in the Cayman Islands. The advertisement was released while hospital CEOs gather together at the Chatham Bars Inn for the Massachusetts Hospital Association annual meeting in an effort to show the disconnect between hospital CEOs and their desire to provide adequate patient care. —Nicholas Handy, GoLocalWorcester.com, 06/12/14 More »

While hospital executives from across Massachusetts meet in Chatham this week, a nurses union is running a radio ad that criticizes Massachusetts hospital chiefs' compensation packages and calls for greater transparency of hospital finances. The ad campaign started Tuesday and will run through Friday, David Schildmeier, spokesman for the Massachusetts Nurses Association/National Nurses United, said. —Cynthia McCormick, Cape Cod Times, 06/12/14 More »

The Massachusetts Nurses Association is ramping up its efforts to build support for two ballot questions that would change the way hospitals operate. In one example, the MNA polled 100 doctors who regularly care for patients in Massachusetts hospitals. Of the responses, 58 percent said they have seen executives cut valuable patient care services in order to increase a hospital's operating margin, and 70 percent said they believed greater transparency of hospital finances would help protect those programs. —Jessica Bartlett - Boston Business Journal, 06/11/14 More »

It was an early day for Julie Perry and other nurses of the National Nurses United in Kansas City. Many members got up between 4 and 5 a.m. to catch the 5:30 a.m. bus to the Capitol. Their mission? To protest “right to work,” lobby state legislators to vote the measure down, and find support for a bill that would create requirements to make lifting patients easier. After a brief training seminar at Bones Lounge & Restaurant in downtown Jefferson City, members of the nurses union split up into several groups to visit 35 legislators in an hour, said Jan Rodolfo, a nurse and union representative.
—By Casey Bischel, News Tribune, 06/10/14 More »

With less than 10 days notice, nurses from around Chicago descended on the Health and Human Services Committee hearing of our IL Ratio Bill HB 0012! 9 nurses testified, speaking eloquently and from the heart about how unsafe staffing is hurting their patients. Many more were prepared to testify had we had more time. —National Nurses United, 06/09/14 More »

A national nurses union and Southeast Side activists will call on Mayor Rahm Emanuel today to ban petroleum coke in Chicago city limits until the piles of dust are enclosed. National Nurses United says in a news release that an Emanuel-backed ordinance the City Council passed last month to regulate storage of petroleum coke doesn't go far enough. —Chicago Tribune, 06/09/14 More »

Quick action from all County workers opposed to pension cuts stopped passage of pension legislation. In a last minute move, Toni Preckwinkle, the President of the Cook County Board went to Springfield the last two weeks of May with an entourage of lobbyists to ram her pension reform package through in the final hours of the session. Preckwinkle, accompanied by leaders and lobbyists from the larger County unions, attempted to convince state politicians to cut County pensions in a last minute appeal.
—National Nurses United, 06/09/14 More »

“Stunning, just stunning, just stunning,” said Sheilah Garland, shaking her head as she stared out the window of the bus rolling along a dirt road next to towering black piles of petroleum coke on Chicago’s Southeast Side. As an organizer of National Nurses United, a labor union representing about 6,000 nurses in Chicago and 185,000 nationwide, Garland has seen a lot. She represents nurses working in grueling and traumatic situations on a daily basis. And the union has picked fights with powerful politicians, including former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. —Midwest Energy News, 06/09/14 More »

Registered nurses and community activists will tour petroleum coke sites in Chicago Monday and publicly demand city officials to declare a moratorium on creating the byproduct they say is a hazard to city residents. National Nurses United is planning a news conference alongside the Southeast Side Environmental Task Force, Southeast Side Coalition to Ban Petcoke, and Progressive Democrats of America. —The Herald-News, 06/09/14 More »

Health insurance plans have networks of doctors and hospitals that policyholders must use. If a patient wants to see an out-of-network provider, they face higher out-of-pocket costs. But a pending bill in the California Senate would require insurers to offer timely access to care. If that wasn’t possible, patients could see a non-network provider without having to pay more. —Kenny Goldberg, KPBS, 06/06/14 More »

One in four Bay State nurses says that patient deaths are “directly attributable” to having too many people in their care at one time, according to a new survey.
The survey, commissioned by the Massachusetts Nurses Association/National Nurses United, also found 46 percent of nurses said understaffing has resulted in injury to patients, 51 percent said it has led to longer hospital stays, and 57 percent said it has led to medication errors. Research firm Anderson Robbins did the survey of randomly selected nurses. —Marie Szaniszlo, The Boston Herald, 06/05/14 More »

78% of RNs agree that the quality of patient care in Massachusetts hospitals is suffering due to unsafe patient assignments including 59% of RNs who are aware of patient complications and 46% who are aware of patients who have been injured or harmed because hospitals are forcing nurses to care for too many patients at one time. Outraged Legislators Claim the Results Sound the Alarm for Immediate Action on Pending Legislation to Ensure Safe Patient Limits for Safer Patient Care
—David Schildmeier, Massachusetts Nurses Association, 06/04/14 More »

Manteca’s elected leaders want Kaiser to restore services to the healthcare firm’s Manteca hospital.
The resolution adopted by the City Council Tuesday calls for Kaiser Permanente to immediately bring back the following services to the Manteca Kaiser Medical Center on West Yosemite Avenue:
• cardiology/echocardiograms so patients needing them will not be transferred to Modesto.
• making ultrasound services available 24 hours.
• reopen the medical surgical unit.
• restoring a full function sub-acute surgical unit. —Dennis Wyatt. Manteca Bulletin, 06/04/14 More »

Nurses and other hospital workers of the Seton Medical Center staged a vigil last week to protest the proposed closure of the emergency care services and critical care unit. “These nurses behind me, we are all nurses, and we want to keep the hospital open and to be of service to the community. There are a lot of senior citizens in the area especially Filipino people. This is 90 percent Filipino community so they should advocate that Seton will be an acute hospital," said Tessie Cachola, a run staff nurse at Seton for 30 years said. The Daughters of Charity Health System, which owns Seton, reportedly can longer afford to fund the services. —Rommel Conclara, ABS-CBN North America News Bureau, 06/02/14 More »